Riu Santa Fe

Was at the Palace last time,but thought I would try the Santa Fe this time,was impressed by the Southwestern feel this resort has,clean rooms,good food choices,friendly staff,2 pool areas by the beach or inside the resort area,awesome entertainment,even a water slide for the kids,a good bang for your buck

The resort is huge.... Building 7 is great as its by the nice pool by the beach.... however, spring breakers took over and it was soooo loud, many very obnoxious, some nice kids.... but the Foam pool themed parties.... they would wheel passed out kids in wheelchairs, back to their rooms!!! It's just a huge party! Some of our group had been there before but not in March and it was great they said! The staff work very hard, and they know us "older" clients are bothered by all this noise..... but they needed more control. The first night was ridiculous! all night parties and creaming and banging doors! Drunk kids walking errrr staggering all over the place!

I'd like to start off by saying that in NO way are we a picky family. We simply just expect the bare minimum. There are many great qualities to this resort, but anyone considering booking this resort should NOT ignore the negatives. I will start off with the negatives because I feel like they're important. We travelled as a family of 5. With children ages 8, 4 and 6 months. CONS - from Toronto you need to take a bus to another location at Pearson airport. Wasn't very bad but with smaller children you should consider this (we had no idea until we got to the airport) not the toys fault but something just to consider she. Travelling with littles. - at check in we asked for a room upgrade and we were told "no we have nothing" then no direction where to have our bags taken, almost as if we had to find the room ourselves. We did ask someone who was taking care of luggage. He was great. Luckily we were in villa 6, very close to the lobby. - the beds (for a family of 5) were 2 twins pushed together, different heights, 1 pillow each and blankets that I am sure aren't regularly washed. I know this because for a week, ours wasn't. We have a baby that spits up often and we cleaned as much as we could, the blanket was always turned over on the bed when the room was serviced. *****This is the #1 issue. No one sleeps at this resort. It's a super party resort and even though you may not hear the pool parties from villa 6, the people that stay here are completely drunk, inconsiderate, hyperactive and just plain rude. We did not have a quiet moment in the night. There were people screaming, fighting, banging on the walls, blasting music from their rooms, playing banjos down the hall. Really odd things. We've heard others screaming telling them to stop but it didn't work. - people are just as loud at the buffet no biggie - the staff do not maintain the cleanliness at the buffets. Theres bird poop on all of the chairs at the snack bars, the tables are not cleaned up right away with new utensils, no one comes to service you and it's just a kind of "fend for yourself" type of service. People drop food all over the counters and it just overall makes the buffet look unhygienic. Especially with the virus going around. - A la Carte, so it's weird. You don't need a "reservation" but they call it a reservation. What you need to do is go right at the time you want to eat,put your name down for an hour after and then they'll buzz you when a table is ready. If you go when the a la carte opens at 6, they don't put your name down until they're super busy. It's very inconvenient because you wait for so long to get a table and then the service was even longer at the steakhouse. We left without finishing because it got so late with our littles. (Btw there's 2 steakhouses, the one by the beach has better service) - there are young half naked ppl drunk running around everywhere, not a nice scene to be with the family - the waterpark water is not heated. In March the water and weather is cool. You cannot comfortably swim. It's very chilly and breezy - when we were leaving, we asked multiple times where to leave our luggage in the lobby. Check out was 11am but our drive back to the airport wasn't until 4:20pm do we just had to wait around the resort. One man assured us that we should leave our bags in one area but we felt off, turns out he suggested that we left it in the area for travellers returning to Calgary! He didn't even ask us where we were going, just kept saying to leave it there. Another kind man directed us to the right spot. - the resort says there's a kids park in Riu land. NO ONE. Knew where that was. We were confused if it was the water park which was called something else. PROS - Los Cabos in general is absolutely breath taking. Very exotic with amazing views. We are fans of Mexico and travelled several times to Rivera Maya. The views here are very different and beautiful - the grounds are extremely well maintained. You will not find a bug, seaweed, or garbage laying around. The staff do an excellent job with up keeping the resort - the rooms were clean and each person did a different job everyday but nothing to complain about.we always had new towels and a stocked fridge. We were happy. - the food was great. Lots of variety, you'll find something that you enjoy and it's always there for you daily. The burgers are great. Steak house, Italian were my favorite. No complaints! - one of our children has a severe egg allergy, we were given a letter from the front desk that had English and Spanish translated that no eggs and cashews should be around the good that she eats and cooked separately. We showed the chef's at the restaurants and they either cooked her something fresh or gold us what should have that's safe. Very appreciative about that! - the weather was cool but still enjoyable. I personally love that, bring sweaters though so you can enjoy it! Overall I think los Cabos is BEAUTIFUL! No doubt. Spend the extra money and go somewhere that you can relax and enjoy all that it has to offer. Relaxing was our priority and I feel like inconsiderate behaviour should be monitored for the courtesy of others. If you can go to Marina, it's safe, cheap to get there and is just perfection . We really enjoyed our time there and we were happy we decided to go. Lots of walking so be prepared to explore! I also recommend braking a boat to the Arch. Would we come back to the Riu Santa Fe, no. Nor would I recommend it to anyone that wants to just sit back and enjoy but we'd definitely come back to Los Cabos. - -